About 1 crore households in Andhra Pradesh will receive rent-free telephone service, cable television connection and internet connectivity for a nominal price from December 2018, The Indian Express reported.
About 50,000 schools, 10,000 government offices, 5,000 public health centres and all panchayat offices will also be connected under the state’s Fibre Grid Project, which President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated on Wednesday.
Currently, more than a lakh domestic connections have been completed, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s son and minister Nara Lokesh said. “All this was achieved with just Rs 333 crore, at one-fourth the original cost [Rs 4,700 crore] envisaged with traditional means,” he added.
The government was looking to tie up with Google X , the tech giant’s research and development facility, and connect the remotest parts of Andhra Pradesh with internet, the minister said.
The project aims to provide high-speed internet for Rs 149 a month, The Times of India reported. The government also plans to use the grid’s network to provide statewide surveillance. For this, it is looking to use more than 20,000 CCTV cameras and set up 16 integrated district command control and data centres.
The Andhra Pradesh State Fibernet Limited, which will implement the project, is the country’s largest state government-owned telecommunication company at present. It has already installed more than 23,000 km of the required 55,000 km of optical fibre cables in 13 districts of the state.
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